ESPN's Adam Schefter Plays Confusing Role In Revealing Dalvin Cook Abuse Lawsuit TRAINA THOUGHTS
1. Tuesday night, at 7:15 eastern, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter sent out this tweet to his 8.7 million followers.
Clearly, Dalvin Cook’s agent was trying to get ahead of a story that was about to go public. The Vikings running back is being sued for allegedly abusing a former girlfriend.
Why Schefter would let himself be used as a pawn in this story is mind-boggling.
The framing and wording of Schefter’s tweet is downright strange, and it is completely obvious that it’s meant to court public sympathy for Cook before the entire story becomes public. Whether he intended it or not, Schefter comes across as doing the agent’s dirty work with that tweet.
This isn’t a story about a trade or a coach being fired. This is a story about a domestic abuse case. Cook is innocent until proven guilty, but there is an obligation to present both sides of this case. You can’t just throw out that Cook is a “victim” because Cook’s agent says so and not present the other side.
The weirdness continued 45 minutes later when Schefter sent this tweet:
So now we have two tweets where Cook’s agent is using Schefter’s Twitter account to release statements that present one side of the story.
Schefter then tweeted a statement from the Vikings, a statement from the NFL and a statement from Cook’s attorney.
But there was still nothing about Gracelyn Trimble’s side of this case. Trimble, a U.S. Army sergeant, filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing Cook of assault, battery and false imprisonment.
Then, at 9:52 pm ET, Schefter tweeted a link to an Associated Press story detailing both sides of the allegations. He did not send any tweets with the pictures of Trimble after their altercation. He did not send any tweets with the DM exchange between Cook and Trimble after their altercation.
Again, nobody knows what happened in this case yet, but Schefter was clearly comfortable telling his followers that Cook is a victim according to his agent, but remained silent about Trimble’s version of the events.
Bizarre and kind of gross.
2. One thing that got lost in Aaron Rodgers's appearance on The Pat McAfee Show yesterday was when the interview was done covering the vaccine scandal, the show turned to its weekly Book Club segment with the Packers quarterback. And this was the graphic used for the introduction.
For those who don't get the reference, this will explain it.
3. Remember a couple of years ago when LeSean McCoy tweeted spoilers for Avengers: End Game and everybody lost their minds and wanted to do bad things to the former NFL running back?
Shady, who has been a co-host on Good Morning Football this week, is STILL apologizing for the incident, and it's pretty hilarious.
4. "If I hit somebody, they have the right to hit me back." That was Charles Barkley defending his take that Markieff Morris should've been suspended for starting the fight with Nikola Jokić, who did get a one-game suspension for his hit from behind. The entire discussion between the Inside the NBA crew was very entertaining.
5. This was solid.
6. The latest episode of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast features an interview with Al Michaels.
The voice of NBC's Sunday Night Football addresses reports that he's headed to Amazon to call Thursday Night Football next season. Michaels also talks about how he views certain games on the Sunday night schedule, the wildest games he's called, his old feud with Boomer Esiason, the good and bad from the Dennis Miller years on Monday Night Football and his thoughts on the success of the ManningCast.
Michaels also talks about steakhouses, his favorite sides and why he puts ketchup on his steaks.
The podcast closes with the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week, Jimmy and Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY talk about the Aaron Rodgers COVID-19 saga, whether Von Miller was traded because of a Halloween party, highlights of the last ManningCast, Episode 2 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the revelation that Tony died in the final episode of The Sopranos.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Because everything is a Seinfeld episode, as soon as I saw this tweet ...
... I immediately thought of "The Understudy" episode and this classic scene.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.
